Types of explanations given by foreign African women for xenophobic violence: A De Doorns case study

In November 2009, xenophobic violence flared up in De-Doorns, a small rural town which lies in the Breede Valley Municipality of the Western Cape where table grape production is the main economic activity. The De-Doorns violence involved local South African residents as perpetrators and a significant number of migrant workers mostly Zimbabweans as victims. The central purpose of this thesis is to compare the explanations for xenophobic violence given by female victims with explanations drawn from the research community and the mass media covering the De-Doorns incident. The major research question is to find reasons for this De-Doorns violence given by female victims, by the research community and by the print media. The results point to the following motives for xenophobic violence: frustrations that translated into xenophobic violence were driven by labour matters. South Africans believed that Zimbabweans were accepting seasonal farm work from farmers at lower wages than those for locals. The violence was also perceived to have been initiated by labour brokers and by a local ANC councillor. The current investigation indicates that the potential for xenophobia-related violence still exists in South African townships even after the widespread outburst of xenophobic violence of 2008 since refugees and vulnerable migrants remain visible targets.

Publisher: Stellenbosch University
Year of Publication: 2012